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Editors believed their magazines could change lives (laphamsquarterly.org)
33 points by tintinnabula on April 1, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 12 comments



That illustration of 1889 should be an error: there is electric oven, toaster, radio and wall clock - isn't it bit too early for those items?


That is simply in no way a kitchen from 1889. In fact, though I don't actually think so, it could plausibly be a kitchen from 1989, of someone who likes to have a few retro items around. Rotary phones were still common; the only thing looking out of place for 1989 is that two-knob radio. Someone could easily have had that for 30 years (it's an older person's kitchen), or picked one up at a flea market or garage sale for fun. Stoves not very different from that one are still available today as low-end units. In run-down rental apartment buildings, you can still run into ones that have analog clocks.


I toured a condominium for sale in San Francisco ~5 years ago. The entire kitchen was circa 1930s original, including refrigerator, stove, sink, and cabinets. It was all exceptionally well maintained and if I had bought that place I'd probably keep the kitchen exactly as it was.


The image URL has 1948 in it.

Here's the wikimedia entry: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Ladies%27_home_j... It appears to be the source of the bad date.


Looks like the blurbs for pictures were swapped.


I wish my desktop computer was like a beautiful live magazine with infographics and pages for system administration.


I remember Steve Jobs showing the 1st Ipad with his argument to own one: 'Look! there will be interactive books!' and showed one -But there weren't... so I never bought one. Last time i thought about this (old) story was as somebody sold a truckload used one-armed, mobile roboters with a 2 hours battery holding a tablet-pc, for under US$1.000 -but without the tablet ^^

But, btt Storyline (crossreading) was:

'In the 1890s..." Updated (!) In modern times some people may like to behave having tendencies or concrete plans to extend their influence. Some of'em want to offer you a -ideology-(crossed out) um modern times [^^] -I would like to call it 'lifestyle'.

> 'And some are selling them shovels' (-;


I'm intrigued to know more about this.


I assume some HNers of a certain generation had their lives changed for the better by the likes of Byte or Dr. Dobb's Journal.


> Editors believed their magazines could change lives

Like TV they have, and also been a force of good.


And they were right. Since magazines are just the TVs of the 1940-1970s, they effectively changed our lives by offering us glimpses of the Kardashians, Trump, Miley Cyrus, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, FoxNews/MSNBC, SlapChop, etc. Media has always said it'd be a force for good (and I'm sure it intended to do so)...


> SlapChop

I did indeed love his nuts.




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